Benefits of Clean Air Act Rules to Reach $2T, EPA Says

[ProSense]

Source: New York Times

A two-decade-old crackdown on smog and soot under the Clean Air Act will yield about $2 trillion in annual benefits by 2020, according to a study (pdf) that was released by U.S. EPA this morning and was touted as proof that the embattled agency's rules are an economic boon for the American people.

Those rules prevented an estimated 160,000 deaths last year, according to the analysis, and within a decade, that number is projected to rise to about 230,000. That year, the new pollution controls will prevent an estimated 200,000 cases of heart disease, 2.4 million asthma flare-ups and 22.4 million missed school and work days.

The study was ordered by the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, which were signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. Most of the stricter limits on smog and soot also date back to those amendments, which passed with support from both parties.

In a statement today, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the benefits of those rules are a testament to "the power of bipartisan approaches to protecting the health of the American people."



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/03/01/01greenwire-benefits-of-clean-air-act-rules-to-reach-2t-ep-41433.html

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Center for Biological Diversity

WASHINGTON— A scientific report released today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency once again establishes the immense public health and economic benefits of the Clean Air Act. The report, titled The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act from 1990 to 2020, found that Clean Air Act programs to reduce fine particle and ozone pollution prevented more than 160,000 deaths,130,000 heart attacks and 1.7 million asthma attacks in 2010 alone; the economic benefits of those programs will reach approximately $2 trillion by 2020.

“The evidence is in once again — the Clean Air Act saves lives and saves money,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “You can add the EPA’s latest report to the stack of studies debunking polluters’ flimsy arguments that cleaning up our air is bad for the economy. It’s more clear than ever that voting to gut the Clean Air Act is voting not only to hurt our health and our environment, but our economy too.”

Last week, the Center released a report detailing why the Clean Air Act needs to be harnessed to its fullest extent to significantly address climate change. The report, titled The Clean Air Act Works, highlights the Clean Air Act’s 40-year track record of achieving comprehensive and cost-effective reductions in air pollution and details additional action the EPA must take to achieve necessary greenhouse gas pollution reductions.

The Act is under intense assault in Congress, which recently voted to strip funding from EPA programs aimed at reducing carbon pollution. The Act’s opponents have relied on unsupported arguments that reducing greenhouse gases hurts the economy — arguments that have been repeatedly disproven, including by today’s detailed report from the EPA.

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[savalez]

1. Repeatedly disproving something only makes Pubs believe it more. n/t

[bloomington-lib]

2. Not trying to piss on the benefits of the EPA but

its sad that shining a light on the improved health of millions of Americans is not enough. There has to be a lot of money being made/saved to get peoples attention, hence the title.